Rotenone . A Brief Review of its Chemistry , Environmental Fate , and the Toxicity of Rotenone Formulations

Background on the Chemistry of Rotenone. Rotenone is a natural product isolated from certain subtropical and tropical members of the pea family found in South America and Southeast Asia. The use of rotenone by man may be ancient, as early explorers noted Peruvian natives using crude extracts of the Cubé plant to stun fish for eating. In the early 1900’s, botanists exploring Peruvian jungles searching for new and useful plants of potential commercial value exported large quantities of plant roots and extracts to the US for use as insecticides on food crops, with the major active ingredient of the extracts being rotenone. Rotenone has been used commercially as a garden insecticide since the middle 1800’s, primarily in the UK. Rotenone is still currently widely used as a garden insecticide, and in organic farming as a natural, botanical insecticide. In California, about 200 kg of rotenone is used per year as an insecticide for organically grown lettuce and tomatoes. Rotenone has also found significant use as a highly selective piscicide for the control or eradication of non-native fish in streams and lakes across the United States. Rotenone has been used successfully for native trout reintroduction in the United States since the 1960’s.